A Stroke of Midnight

By Laurell K. Hamilton

In some ways I liked this book better than the previous ones, but I absolutely hated the ending. Or rather the lack of an ending. It is as though the author wrote a certain number of words and then just quit leaving the story in the middle. In the previous book SEDUCED BY MOONLIGHT, Merry and her body guards “slash” harem returned to the faerie sithen, foiling several assassination attempts against herself and even the Queen of Air and Darkness, Andais.

This book starts the next day with a press conference, followed by the murder of a demi-fae and a human reporter. Merry convinces Andais to let her bring in human police and CIS investigators hoping that they can discover clues with science that magic might hide.

But that isn’t the only problem Merry has. The Goddess is determined to restore the power to the fae using Merry. Because Merry is descended from five fertility deities, it of course involves sex, and it doesn’t matter if it is inconvenient for Merry to stop what she is doing and fuck someone new.

Suddenly her bodyguards are being attacked. When Galen almost dies, it brings home to Merry just how important he and the others have come to her.

Merry just doesn’t have time for all that is going on, but the newly awaken sithen helps by speeding time up within its confines.

This book becomes more and more fantastical as new powers or rather old powers are restore, like the way Merry gets a tattoo. Laurell K. Hamilton’s imagination is beyond creative, as are her sex scenes. Each one is different and highly erotic. It is no longer so much about getting her pregnant, but about being a vessel that the Goddess will use. It is good that she really isn’t adding any more lovers too her roster of handsome, broody men. We have enough to keep tack of.

As I said, I enjoyed this book because although there was a lot of sex, there didn’t feel as though there was a lot of gratuitous sex. Some but not all. There was a purpose to the sex, it wakened powers, made things happen. Besides there was just too much other stuff going on that crowded out some of the sex.

And there lies the problem. There is so much left hanging at the end of the story, there is no sense of completion or satisfaction. Sort of like Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back and just like then, we have a long wait until the next installment. Ugh!

Reviewed by Linda Suzane June 14, 2005

A Stroke of Midnight
By Laurell K. Hamilton
Published by Random House
Copyright 2005
ISBN#: 0-345-44357-8
Series: Merry Gentry #4
Genre Subgenre: Paranormal